http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.42016
How to cite this paper: Han, Y.Y., Zhang, Y.L. and Yang, X.P. (2016) Analysis on the Differences of Pre-School Education De-velopment in Western China from the Perspective of Balanced Urban and Rural Areas DeDe-velopment. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4, 115-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.42016
Analysis on the Differences of Pre-School
Education Development in Western China
from the Perspective of Balanced Urban
and Rural Areas Development
—Taking Chongqing City as an Example
Yaoyang Han1*, Youlong Zhang2, Xiaoping Yang1
1Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
2Teachers College, Guizhou University of Engineering Science, Bijie, China
Received 11 January 2016; accepted 22 February 2016; published 25 February 2016
Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Abstract
Chongqing city is selected as a sample area. According to the relevant statistical data in 2009-2013, it analyzed the differences of pre-school education balanced development in urban and rural areas western China in three aspects of which were the studying opportunity, resource allocation and development of pre-school children. It is found that there are still existing problems such as the unfair studying opportunity, the unequal resource allocation and the inequity development of pre-school children, and it can be attributed to unbalanced economic development in urban and rural areas, unbalanced distribution of education resources and the lack of supervision system of preschool education quality in rural areas. In order to promote balanced development of pre- school education, and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, it is suggested that we must strengthen government’s role to integrate the development between urban and rural areas, to in-crease financial input for preschool education and give priority to remote poor rural areas in western China, to balance the distribution of high-quality teachers, and to accelerate the mechan-ism and system construction of pre-school education.
Keywords
Preschool Education, Differences between Urban and Rural Areas, Balance the Development of Pre-School Education in Urban and Rural Areas
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116
1. Introduction
Integrating development of urban and rural areas is an important part of the scientific development concept for our country, and is a major task to build a well-off society. As we all know, “the issues of agriculture, rural areas, farmers related to the overall construction of a well-off society, we must take it as our work key point. Education is the cornerstone of national rejuvenation, and education equity is an important foundation for society equity”.
[1]. Pre-school education, as the foundation of basic education, plays a cornerstone role for children’s develop-ment. Meanwhile, only priority to develop pre-school education, we can achieve the goal of urban-rural areas overall development because pre-school education also plays a basic and strategic position in the process of ur-ban-rural areas overall development. Chinese government has enacted the State Medium and Long Term Pro-gram on Education Reform and Development (2010-2020),and(hereinafter referred to as Program) clearly puts forward “priority to develop pre-school education in rural areas”. At the same year, another regulation: Several
Proposals on Development of Current Preschool Education from the State Council was issued. And the center
government requires local government by county to make and implement “a three-year action plan of preschool education (2011-2013)”. This research paper mainly analyzes the differences of pre-school education develop-ment in urban and rural western China in three aspects of which are the studying opportunity, resource alloca-tion and development of pre-school children, and puts forward some targeted countermeasures and suggesalloca-tions.
Existing researches on the balanced development of pre-school in urban and rural areas China, mainly have involved analysis on the differences of pre-school education development in the range of all country, however, there are lack of studies in western China. For instance, Hong xiuming, Zhang Ailin and many other persons have done some difference researches in the range of whole country (Hong xiuming, 2012 Zhang Ailing, 2015).
[2]. Meanwhile, China, as a big traditional agriculture country, has a long history, and we have achieved a large number of successes because of 30 years reform. However, there are still urban-rural areas differences in many aspects in some western areas China. And Chongqing, as a typical represent of big city and big countryside, is chose as a research sample for this paper, and it can be totally reflect what we want to get in this field. Therefore, this short paper, choosing Chongqing city as a sample areas, comprehensively analyzes the development of pre-school education in urban and rural areas western China.
2. The Differences of Pre-School Education Development in Urban and Rural Areas
Western China
The goal of balancing the development of urban and rural areas is to achieve balanced development of education in urban and rural areas. And balanced education means that, under the guidance of education equity thought, education institutions and educatee can own equal treatment to confirm the practical implementation of educa-tion policy and legislaeduca-tion. In a word, the essence of educaeduca-tion balanced development is to aspire for educaeduca-tion equality and to come true education equity [3]. As we know, equity is the premise of social development and progress, and pre-school education, as the starting point of education, what we say is equity. With the develop-ment of society and the increasing of economy, the level of living in urban and rural areas has raised. It seems that the gap between urban and rural areas should be narrowed, on the contrary, the gap is being enlarged. As for as pre-school education to say, the problems of urban-rural areas imbalanced development includes following aspects.
2.1. Unequal Education Opportunity: Imbalance between Urban and Rural Areas Children’s Right to Achieve Education and Opportunity for Admission Kindergarten
Unequal education opportunity is a prominent manifestation of the unbalanced development of pre-school edu-cation in urban and rural areas. No equality of eduedu-cational opportunity is not equal to the so-called resource al-location and development.
2.1.1. The Growing Gap of the Number of Kindergarten in Urban and Rural Areas
Kinder-117
garten attached to central primary school cannot meets people’s needs, so people themselves establishes all kinds of low-level kindergarten by Hope-project or some other ways. From the following Table 1 shows that, however, 2008-2013 numbers of kindergarten in rural areas Chongqing city has not got half of whole number of kindergarten in Chongqing city. Meanwhile, the gap of kindergarten numbers between urban and rural areas is not only narrowed but trend to enlarge. As we can see, the ratio of gap only is 14% in 2008, but the ratio of gap amazingly expands to 55% in 2013. Compared with the requirements of admission kindergarten for mostly children in rural areas, the number of kindergarten is still very scarce, and a lot of children still face with the situation that no kindergarten to study (see Figure 1).
2.1.2. The Growing Gap Ratio of Urban-Rural Areas Kindergarten Enrolling Children Numbers
From 2008 to 2013, urban enrolling children numbers accounting for the overall proportion shows that it’s trend to slowly increase, but the proportion of children in rural kindergarten shows a trend of gradual decline. The proportion of children in the kindergarten of rural areas Chongqing city downs to 17.6% in 2013, and the enrollment gap between urban and rural areas increases year by year. The gap is rising from 28.2% in 2008 to 64.8% in 2013, which shows a trend of expanding. These also reflect that the differences of pre-school children admission opportunity and admission rate in urban and rural areas Chongqing city will be gradually enlarged (see Figure 2).
2.2. Unequal Resources Allocation: Huge Gap between Urban and Rural Areas in Pre-School Education Public Resources Allocation
[image:3.595.195.435.390.549.2]Equitable distribution of education public resources is material premise guarantee for coming true process fair-ness of education development and educatee getting equal education service [4]. Public pre-school education resources includes human resources and material resources. Human resources mainly refers to the allocation of teacher resources, and this index mainly reflected ways includes teacher-child ratio, the structure of educational
Figure 1. Number ratio of urban-rural areas kindergarten in
Chongqing city in 2008-20131.
Table 1. Allocation of kindergarten teachers in urban and rural areas Chongqing city.
Year Full-time teacher total Full-time teacher and teacher-child ratio Full-teacher average No. each class
Urban Rural areas Urban Rural areas Urban Rural areas
2008 12,570 2937 1/29 1/70 0.85 0.45
2009 13,785 2794 1/30.5 1/76 1.17 0.43
2010 16,230 3736 1/29 1/63.5 1.23 0.50
2011 20,887 1896 1/32 1/92 0.96 0.31
2012 24,525 2210 1/29 1/78 1.08 0.30
2013 27,780 2419 1/26.5 1/64.9 1.23 0.45
[image:3.595.88.539.580.709.2]118
Figure 2. Number ratio of urban-rural areas enrolling chil-
dren in Chongqing city in 2008-2013.
attainment and rank of full-time teachers. Material resources mainly includes kindergarten floor space, recrea-tional room and picture books [2].
2.2.1. The Number Gap of Full-Time Kindergarten Teachers and Teacher-Child Ratio in Urban and Rural Areas
Teacher-child ratio is an important indicator to measure preschool education quality. In recent years, salary is very poor for kindergarten teachers in rural areas, less authorized number, and it is difficult to attract high- quality teachers to teach in peace of mind. Meanwhile, low-level teachers, serious teachers loss etc. problems are causes of having shortage of full time teachers. From Table 1 shows, the number of full-time kindergarten teachers in rural areas Chongqing city is very scarce, and pre-school teachers equipped in rural areas is insuffi-cient, and per class average number of full-time teachers cannot reach 1 person. It is far below the national av-erage level and the level of urban.
2.2.2. The Growing Difference of Urban-Rural Areas Pre-School Teachers Educational Attainment
The huge difference between urban kindergarten teachers and rural areas kindergarten teachers not only reflects at quantity but also quality. Compared with unequal allocation of kindergarten teachers quantity in urban and rural areas, the distribution of high education attainment teacher in urban and rural areas is more unequal. All the time, the education level of kindergarten teachers in rural areas is low in total, which shows that the educa-tion attainment differences of kindergarten teachers in urban and rural areas are very remarkable. From Figure 3
indicates that, the educational attainment of urban kindergarten full-time teachers in 2008-2013 mainly is asso-ciate bachelor and above assoasso-ciate bachelor. Although the proportion of kindergarten teachers in rural areas who the educational attainment is associate bachelor and above associate bachelor has increase, it is still far low the level of urban.
2.2.3. Obvious Difference of Kindergarten Conditions in Urban and Rural Areas
Kindergarten conditions are not only the content of “hardware”, but also the basic conditions to ensure the teaching quality of pre-school education. For a long time, conditions for most of kindergarten in rural areas Chongqing city are poor such as dilapidated housing, lack of facilities, poor equipment, unable to provide basic living facilities and teaching equipment for children. It can be seen from Table 2, from 2008 to 2013, there is a trend that the gap of per-student recreation and outdoor activity space and picture books in urban and rural areas Chongqing city is gradually narrowing, but it is still very obvious. Many conditions for kindergartens and learn-ing and gap between the rural areas of Chongqlearn-ing city kindergarten children’s learnlearn-ing conditions and livlearn-ing conditions and urban children is still very behind.
2.3. Imbalanced Development: Obvious Differences of Pre-School Education Quality in Urban and Rural Areas
2.3.1. The Gap of Proportion of Kindergarten Graduation Children in Urban and Rural Areas
[image:4.595.208.490.80.250.2]119
Figure 3. Number of kindergarten teachers above associate bach-
elor accounts for total in 2008-2013.
Table 2. Per student comparison of conditions for kindergarten in urban and rural areas in 2008-2013.
Year Per student floor space (m2) Per student recreational space (m2) Per student out-door activity (m2)
Per student picture books (volum)
Urban Rural areas Gap Urban Rural areas Gap Urban Rural areas Gap Urban Rural areas Gap
2008 4.37 2.08 2.29 1.65 0.78 0.87 2.46 1.75 0.71 3.07 2.61 0.46
2009 4.23 1.98 2.25 2.53 0.70 1.83 3.95 1.68 2.27 6.62 2.48 4.14
2010 4.25 2.19 2.06 1.58 0.73 0.85 2.26 1.67 0.59 3.09 1.34 1.75
2011 3.65 1.67 1.98 1.58 0.77 0.81 2.78 1.95 0.83 3.40 1.38 2.02
2012 3.94 2.06 1.88 1.70 0.89 0.81 3.06 2.26 0.80 4.51 2.01 2.50
2013 4.43 2.54 1.89 1.95 1.10 0.85 3.41 2.91 0.50 5.43 2.76 2.67
grade students in primary school who have kindergarten experience or not, and the beginning effect of pre- school education does exist and can keep on to the elementary school even longer [5]. According to relevant sta-tistics, the ratio of freshman students in urban elementary school who has pre-school education experience ac-counts for above 95%, and 85% for students in rural areas, the gap still remains above 10%.
2.3.2. The Obvious Differences for the Quality of Children’s Entrance School Preparation in Urban and Rural Areas
The obvious differences of the status in society and economy and achieving pre-school education quality of children in urban and rural areas lead to their significant difference in the quality of entrance school preparation. A large number of studies have shown, no matter what preparation aspects at language, maths or others, children who lives in a higher social and economic family will be better than those who living in a low-level social and economic family. Different pre-school education experiences for children living in rural areas will produce vast influence on their entrance school preparation or marks in one year [6]. Children in rural areas obviously lags behind children in urban, and it includes learning style, cognitive development, language development and emo-tional and social development and so on [7].
3. Main Causes Analysis on the Differences of Pre-School Education Development
in Urban and Rural Areas Western China
3.1. Development of Unbalanced Economy in Urban and Rural Areas
[image:5.595.94.540.275.410.2]120
makes that the conditions of pre-school education in rural areas is very backward, the level of teachers is not high, and the level of education is low. At the same time, the level of economy development for majorities of rural areas in western is so low that many families cannot afford for tuition in ordinary kindergarten, which leads to a result that a large number of school-age children in rural areas have no opportunity to go to kindergarten. Finally, the gap of economy development between urban and rural areas will be more and more enlarged, which will not be conducive to the construction of integration development of urban and rural areas. And the unequal development of pre-school education in urban and rural areas will be enlarge, and the social contradictions will be deepened.
3.2. Unequal Distribution of Educational Resources
It is an important reason for unbalanced development of pre-school education in urban and rural areas western China to unequally distribute resources. Firstly, in terms of the allocation of educational resources, the financial total investment of pre-school education in China is insufficient. More than ten years, there has been only about 1.3% in public education finance that is used for pre-school education. However, the limited resources of pre-school education was preferentially given high-quality kindergarten in urban. Secondly, in the aspects of pre-school education, we take the principle of local responsibility system in China. Usually, the local govern-ment will preferentially give kindergarten in urban limited pre-school public funding, and it mainly depends on some funding obtained from children for kindergartens in rural areas, and its funding is quite limited. Thus, kin-dergarten condition is not so good because of the shortage of funds in rural areas, outdated equipment, less scientific communication activities. Thirdly, lacking of high-quality kindergarten teachers and a large number of losses. For a long time, there are many teachers in rural areas who have to flock to city for the pressure of life due to less authorized number, lower wages and social in rural areas. The rural preschool teacher preparation less, low wages, at the bottom of the social status, and teacher who stays at rural kindergarten is some temporary substitute teachers without qualification.
3.3. Lacking of Quality Supervision for Pre-School Education in Rural Areas
Lacking of quality supervision mechanism is a main reason that results in low quality for kindergarten in rural areas. Many families hope their children success, especially in rural areas because of the influence of urban and rural areas dual structure. There is a good example that “primary” tendency for a lot of kindergartens in rural areas is becoming more and more obvious. How many words do your children remember and write, which be-comes an evaluation indicator for high-low quality kindergartens. As we all know, it does not conform to the law of physical and mental development of children, which will eventually hinder the children’s healthy growth, deviate from the initial goal of setting up kindergartner.
4. Conclusions and Suggestions
121 development of preschool education in urban and rural areas.
Fund
This research was supported by a grant “Strategy Research on Balanced Development of Pre-school Education in Chongqing City from the Perspective of Balanced Urban and Rural Development” (Grant No. 2011YBJ070).
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